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More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

#51

Post by agitator »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #44
vanattab wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Now, I use that to my partner ironically, if I don't want to shout and hurt the vocal cords, just whistle and she knows her presence is requested. Or you know... you COULD walk over to where she is.

Yeah, my partner's family have a "family whistle" which is often employed to find one another. It's useful but also feels a little disrespectful.

This made me realize that my dad has a specific whistle that he would use throughout my childhood and even today as an adult, to get the attention of my brother and myself if we were out somewhere. Like a "Hey, we're leaving. Let's go"

Re: More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

#53

Post by exdsq »

teddyh wrote: post #45
exdsq wrote: post #41

Not sure if it counts as a whistle but I always find it amusing how my wife, who's a Swedish speaking Finn, inhales sharply to say "yes".

That is a regional peculiarity specific to the northernmost parts of Sweden, and, I guess, the northernmost Swedish-speaking minority of Finland. Note: Sweden is very unevenly populated; the overwhelming majority of the population lives in the south half of the country, where also its three major cities are located. The northern parts of Sweden mostly consist of vast stretches of wilderness, forests, mountains, and p…

I think it's a little more common purely for fun, almost like slang, among some Swedish-speaking Finns in Helsinki (where she's from)."Ja" is still more common, but it's fun to inhale sometimes

Re: More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

#55

Post by citrus1330 »

addingnumbers wrote: post #49
mypastself wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your interpretation of the title is not supported by the article’s content. In fact, you’re agreeing with it.

They call whistling languages "vestiges," a "protolanguage," and baselessly speculate that they originate from less-evolved primates. The writer's tone keeps reverting to subtly dismissive and colonialist.

The article actually says the exact opposite. Can you read? Here's the quote:

"That doesn’t mean that modern whistled speech is a vestigial remnant of those protolanguages, Meyer cautions. If whistling preceded voiced speech, those earliest whistles wouldn’t have needed to encode sounds produced by the vocal cords. But today’s whistled languages do, which means they arose later, as add-ons to conventional languages, not forerunners of them, Meyer says."

Re: More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

#56

Post by citrus1330 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #2

> "still speak in whistles" "still"? Why is having more degrees of expressiveness in a vocal language considered an anachronism?

If you read the article you would know.

"Despite their interest to both linguists and casual observers, whistled languages are disappearing rapidly all over the world, and some — such as the whistled form of the Tepehua language in Mexico — have already vanished. Modernization is largely to blame, says Meyer, who points to roads as the biggest factor. “That’s why you still find whistled speech only in places that are very, very remote, that have had less contact with modernity, less access to roads,” he says."

Re: More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

#57

Post by France_is_bacon »

Here in the USA, just this past weekend, I spoke in a whistle to someone. They had their driver's side car door open, and they were in a parking space in a parking lot. Someone drove up and wanted to park in the open space next to them. The person with the open car door didn't see them. I whistled. They looked at me and I pointed with my chin to the waiting car. The person waved at me and closed her door.

Maybe my whistle wasn't a regularly used and defined "word" per se, but it was a clear and complete conversation.

Now that I think about it, I have different whistles depending on the situation. A high-pitched short whistle is usually "watch out". A short high-low-high whistle is usually reserved for friends to say "Hey, dude, look over here, I have something to say to you" usually followed by a non-verbal sign language, like pointing somewhere - "go over here" or "check that out". A low-high-low is for friends to more get their attention and let them know "I'm over here." The super loud whistle with your fingers in your mouth is "F-ing awesome" when you're in a crowd and the music group is playing a great song. It also has other uses. But mostly when there's a big crowd or the person you want to talk to is a long distance away. A bunch of high pitched whistles in a row usually means "danger/watch out."

There are other whistles, too. Just giving a few to illustrate how whistles are used right here in the good ole USA for communication purposes.

These are used infrequently, but I find most people understand what I'm whistling about and the different meanings of each whistle.

Re: More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

#58

Post by France_is_bacon »

vanattab wrote: post #35
Dumblydorr wrote: post #29

I use whistling daily. I discovered my dog responds best to whistling, whenever he hears my whistle, he knows it's me and comes running. Now, I use that to my partner ironically, if I don't want to shout and hurt the vocal cords, just whistle and she knows her presence is requested.

>Now, I use that to my partner ironically, if I don't want to shout and hurt the vocal cords, just whistle and she knows her presence is requested. Or you know... you COULD walk over to where she is.

Or, you know...she COULD walk over to where he is.

Re: More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

#59

Post by citrus1330 »

estebarb wrote: post #18

This is extremely cool!!! Also I find surprising that, as a Spanish speaker with no whistle-spanish training, I was able to understand most of the whistles.

I'm not even a native Spanish speaker and I was surprised to find that I could follow along pretty well using the subtitles.

Re: More than eighty cultures still speak in whistles

#60

Post by mypastself »

akiselev wrote: post #48
mypastself wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually did, from a Reddit thread that guided me through the process step by step. I’m having trouble finding the exact link at the moment, but it starts with slowly breathing out the letter “Q”. It’s not a loud, booming sound or anything, but I went from blowing soundless air for 20-odd years to actually whistling.

> I’m having trouble finding the exact link at the moment, but it starts with slowly breathing out the letter “Q”. Thank you! That tip was all I needed to figure it out :)

Ha, glad to be of help!
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